BACKSTORY (January 10, 2013—February 4, 2013): As part of the Limited Time Magic promotion for the Disney Parks, a musical variety show was put together as an homage to the original Golden Horseshoe Revue. Miss Lily and her Saloon Girls performed many of the dances and numbers that the original show was famous for. From the Orange County Register:
When the can-can dancers kick up their legs for Disneyland's "A Salute to the Golden Horseshoe Revue," they will be watched over by a dancer from the original show who last kicked up her legs more than 25 years ago.
Demetra "DeeDee" Bozikis was a can-can dancers during the last nine years of the original show's 31-year run, which ended in October 1986.
"It was wonderful to work with those Disney legends in the original show," said Bozikis, who has been with the Disney for 35 years.
Those legends were Betty Taylor, Wally Boag and Fulton Burley who, along with can-can dancers, performed five days a week for most of the original show's record run of more than 39,000 performances; Bozikis danced in more than 9,000 of them.
"I did a jump-split and landed in a split on the floor, along with kicking up my legs in the can-can," she said.
She started her dancing career by training as a ballerina then auditioned for the classic show.
Now, she is an assistant stage manager for the special salute Disneyland is staging as one of its "Limited Time Magic" events in 2013. In the revival show, the dancers do many of the same routines Bozikis originally did while she watches from backstage.
As part of her job, Bozikis makes sure the dancers spend at least a half-hour warming up before each show; she said it keeps the shows fresh and the dancers safe from injury.
To prove her point, Bozikis kicked up her heels for a reporter.
"I can still can-can," she said.
